Things to do

Monsieur Le Duck

Monsieur Le Duck | Spitalfields Pop Up Restaurant

Usually, when we hear about a place serving duck from South-West France, we canard-ly wait to check it out.

And Monsieur Le Duck is no exception.

One of London’s few duck-focused restaurants, you’ll find it in Spitalfields until May 2019. It comes to us from a trio of friends who all travel frequently to Gascony, and the space they’ve found is a far cry from the quaint rustic-ness you might expect; it’s light, airy, and well-lit, with a white ceiling propped up by a gigantic T-shaped wooden strut.

That quaint rustic-ness is bought right back by the menu, on which you’ll find “no pea shoots, no nasturtiums, no smears of emulsion”, but just classic, old-school duck, frites, and booze. Regarding the former; the quackers come in three main forms: confit duck, finished in the pan with garlic & thyme; Magret duck breast (meaning it’s from the rich, flavourful Moulard breed) either chargrilled or roasted; and a good ol’ duck burger.

You can side it all with bread & duck fat butter; some green beans fried in garlic butter; seasonal greens with lardons; or some frites. This kind of indulgence, in case you had not noticed, is quite literally not for the faint of heart. And if you’re dining with a similarly robust companion, you can both spring for the “Grand Jeu”, netting you all three styles of duck. Plus a salad.

If you fancy quacking open something to drink, they’ve got red, white, rosé, and sparkling, all from south-west France, and more or less designed to go with food like this – much like their Armagnac cocktail (made with sparkling wine and orange) and their house-brew Monsieur Le Duck IPA.

In short, you won’t want to duck this one.

NOTE:Monsieur Le Duck is open now, until 3rd May 2019. You can find out more, and make a booking at their website right HERE.

ALSO NOTE: They’re so popular that they’re opening a permanent restaurant in Clerkenwell, from 9th May. You can book for that right here – and get 20% off your bill until 31st May by quoting “20% Lucky Ducky”. The address will be 27 Clerkenwell Road, EC1M 5RN.